KVR Audio

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:14 am

i know it's difficult...

in september i will be in the US and i could buy an ipad in dollar instead of euros, so considerably cheaper
my question:
should i buy an ipad now or should i wait for the tablet market to develop for a year or two?
what about android??

my principal interests in ipad/android are the music-making apps, mainly for the studio, less important for mobile-music making: i will not travel the world with my tablet to make music, just maybe when i'm on holyday or some weekends.
and i'm just an hobbyst, not a pro!

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:02 am

Don't forget to factor in the conversion rate and charge that your credit card company will apply and state sales tax (which will vary depending on where you're going). The dollar price shown by Apple - or any other US retail store for that matter - won't show the sales tax until you get to the checkout.

Second, if you're not travelling that much, consider whether the iPad is right for you. It can work well as an additional control surface for a DAW using TouchOSC. But the sequencer apps right now are nowhere near as well-featured as those on a regular computer. It's nice to have something to sit on a sofa with and noodle around especially when you have more control over the interface than just a trackpad, but it's a question of whether it's several hundred euro nice.

Android is worth watching but I believe there are still significant latency issues when dealing with audio right now - that will improve and probably reasonably quickly.

Tablets will gradually get better and probably challenge desktop machines over time - you wouldn't have had much joy running a DAW on a laptop ten/fifteen years ago - but that all takes time.

kyodeejay · Post by **kyodeejay** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:49 am

I'll wait. My sister is going to go to EEUU this month, and she offered me an iPad but I refused it. Take a look to the apps and you'll undestand it. They seems cool, but they're very incomplete atm. Maybe for iPad 4 or 5

And you cannot use your vst/au.

Dewaine · Post by **Dewaine** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:58 am

Just get it. You can spend your whole life waiting for something better, or more powerful, cheaper...etc. The music making experience on the iPad is not like on a PC/Mac. And the music making experience on a PC/Mac is not like a real studio where top artist make their albums. But, that does not mean you can't make music on a PC/Mac or an iPad.

If you are a more forward thinking music hobbyist, you will have a blast on the iPad. If you try to make it work like the old school PC/Mac.... don't bother getting one, you will just be frustrated.....

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:12 pm

Dewaine wrote:
If you are a more forward thinking music hobbyist, you will have a blast on the iPad. If you try to make it work like the old school PC/Mac.... don't bother getting one, you will just be frustrated.....

probably that's my problem.

i just don't undesrtand yey what i can actually do with the ipad.
i know morphwiz, samplewiz and a bunch of apps and i feel they're awesome. but i see them more like "toys" than useful instruments. or synths with a nice interface.

my idea, don't know if right or wrong, is that i will (try to) use the ipad as an external synth with my daw. but i'm more used to record midi softsynth and edit them, than record audio tracks from external stuff (apart guitars and acoustic instruments).
i just can't see the ipad as a "standalone" workstation (or something like that) and i'm dubious about how to integrate it in my workflow.

i imagine that it could be terrific in a live, but unfortunately i'm more a "lonely/studio" musician!

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:22 pm

bosone wrote:my idea, don't know if right or wrong, is that i will (try to) use the ipad as an external synth with my daw. but i'm more used to record midi softsynth and edit them, than record audio tracks from external stuff (apart guitars and acoustic instruments).

This is probably not going to work so well - you need to factor in how to hook the iPad up to the DAW. And the horsepower in a tablet isn't so great that you are going to want to use that rather than the DAW's processors themselves, unless you're bumping up against the limit of the computer.

bosone wrote:i just can't see the ipad as a "standalone" workstation (or something like that) and i'm dubious about how to integrate it in my workflow.

MIDI editing in iPad apps is pretty minimal right now. In Garageband, it's more or less non-existent. This will improve but it's hard to see it being better than on a DAW for a year or two yet.

bosone wrote:i imagine that it could be terrific in a live, but unfortunately i'm more a "lonely/studio" musician!

What is your workflow? That would help. With something like Live, the iPad is a great alternative to a dedicated session-mode controller using TouchOSC or similar but you can't run that and a synth at the same time. And the oddball sequencers can be fun if you're focused on doing electronica.

If your music is more about playing instruments in a more traditional way and arranging them, the iPad itself will be less useful.

vata44 · Post by **vata44** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:57 pm

This one!

mbncp · Post by **mbncp** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:14 pm

vaisnava wrote: This one!

I already regret my ipad purchase (first and probably my last apple purchase).

The b121 seems to be already available here in switzerland, I'm very tempted.
I love the bigger screen, for me the ipad size is a bit to small.
And being able to control all my gear using 12+ midi ports from live or bidule sounds nice.

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:44 pm

I want to develop my own applications for a touch device. When I learned that apple charges you $100 per year for the ability to make apps I was floored. The device already costs $500-$600 and I have no desire to place anything in their store, just for my own personal use. I also don't want to have to pay an extra $60 just to get a darn USB port on the thing.

In my opinion the iPad is flat-out tinker/hacker unfriendly. If you just want to be a consumer it seems like a decent enough product. But if you want to extend the product be prepared to pay for the right.

I'm waiting for a compelling android tablet. I think we're getting close.

Just my 2 (ever depreciating) cents.

~Pd~ · Post by **~Pd~** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:54 pm

The iPad is not a tablet PC and people shouldn't think of it in terms of replacing the functionality of a workstation but of complementing it. I mainly got it to use control surfaces like TouchOSC and Konkreet Performer - it's an inexpensive Lemur substitute. It's also an amazing songwriting sketchpad with apps like Garageband, Soundprism and Polychord.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:58 pm

bosone wrote:i know it's difficult...

in september i will be in the US and i could buy an ipad in dollar instead of euros, so considerably cheaper
my question:
should i buy an ipad now or should i wait for the tablet market to develop for a year or two?
what about android??

my principal interests in ipad/android are the music-making apps, mainly for the studio, less important for mobile-music making: i will not travel the world with my tablet to make music, just maybe when i'm on holyday or some weekends.
and i'm just an hobbyst, not a pro!

I've tried some very nice synths on the iPad. Korg MS 20 for instance, basically no latency, all knobs can be tweaked by touching the screen, impressive.

I'm no fan of Apple's closed system, but must admit that it all looks very well done.

To stay tuned with music making on computers, I think it is important to try out different systems.

If you got the money, I would definitely buy one now.

Dewaine · Post by **Dewaine** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:30 pm

bosone wrote:
Dewaine wrote:
If you are a more forward thinking music hobbyist, you will have a blast on the iPad. If you try to make it work like the old school PC/Mac.... don't bother getting one, you will just be frustrated.....
probably that's my problem.

i just don't undesrtand yey what i can actually do with the ipad.
i know morphwiz, samplewiz and a bunch of apps and i feel they're awesome. but i see them more like "toys" than useful instruments. or synths with a nice interface.

my idea, don't know if right or wrong, is that i will (try to) use the ipad as an external synth with my daw. but i'm more used to record midi softsynth and edit them, than record audio tracks from external stuff (apart guitars and acoustic instruments).
i just can't see the ipad as a "standalone" workstation (or something like that) and i'm dubious about how to integrate it in my workflow.

i imagine that it could be terrific in a live, but unfortunately i'm more a "lonely/studio" musician!

If that is where your head is at, then I would suggest not getting one. If you start from a negative view, odds are it will be self fulfilling. The idea of a Windows tablet (And I am a Windows PC guy) seems pointless to me. My whole idea was breaking away from the old 80's model PC/Mac's are still using today. For me music making is about trying creative ideas, and having fun. If I wanted to make a hit record I would get a band and go to a real recording studio...... Of course this is all IMHO.... like most things on KVR, there is no right or wrong answer, just what works for you.

mindnoise · Post by **mindnoise** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:21 am

Mostly as the above

the iPad is worth it alone for use a Controller with TouchOSC !!!

for mobile Recording MultiTrack DAW or Meteor is the best
for MIDI it's Music Studio.

Beatmaker, Nano Studio etc. settle somewhere in between as clip sequencers.

Playing Synths without an external keyboard via Camera Connection kit is pretty annoying.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great creativity tools there for the iPad but they only work your greatest benenfit if you use them to get source material to use in your computer DAW.

But as a stadnalone device the ipad is still pretty limited.
But I would dearly miss it already as a very convenient add-on after 3 months of use.

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:38 pm

hi
just to end this story...
i have decided to wait
too much is happening on the tablet world and i feel is better to wait for some time

i will spend the money in other ways:
a zoom h4n portable recorder and, perhaps, komplete 8 crossgrade...

Dewaine · Post by **Dewaine** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:52 pm

Good for you! Sounds like some good "instead of" purchases

should i buy an ipad or should i wait??